He declared that all the attempts at unity were being based on minimum theses, but that unity to be true unity must be based on maximum truth. In other words, it's impossible to have unity at zero. That's not unity. That's forsaking all truth for the sake of a larger church group. It's now known as being multi-cultural, not truth seeking. It became a sociological phenomenon, not a spiritually endowed movement.

Jesus talked about unity at the maximum in John 17. Unity begins with a total separation from the world. It's not for largeness. In fact, the call to unity can birth a reduction in size. Verse 14 exclaims vividly that obedience to the Word, which's commanded by God, has a reducing effect. The Word of God infiltrates our lifestyle so much until the world neither understands us nor wants us.

The question that keeps appearing in my mind is: Has the world so infiltrated the church that it dictates the atmosphere and attitudes of the church so effectively that what unity we have is at the minimum, rather than Jesus’ maximum.

Verse 17 delineates the journey to unity. Only a single-mindedness seeking for the holiness of God to become our holiness will lead us to unity. Spiritual unity must begin with the personal compliance and surrender to the will of God.

The greatest mystery is that Jesus walked this road of abandonment and compliance first. He declares that His driving force was separation and sanctification. The world had to be antagonistic and rougher on His purity and poise than we'll ever experience. The mystery revealed in verse 19 is overwhelming. He knew that only by separation and single God-mindedness could He rest in the Godhead. ‘That they may be one (singularly and plural) as you, father, are in me, and I in you.’ That's the portrayal of the Godhead. The thirst for sanctity will produce a unity in us and among us that's realized in the Godhead.

Jesus raised the standard for unity to maximum by this statement: "That they also may be one in us." There's nothing cheap nor minimum in the understanding Jesus had of Unity. This phrase alone eradicates all attempts with minimum agreements to facilitate unity. Jesus really nailed shut the meaning of Unity in verse 22 by stating that the glory of God is the overarching achiever of Unity. Man can't initiate or derive unity. The glory of God initiates and encourages unity with Jesus’ exclaiming, "That they may be one just as we are one." That delicious unity enhances our obligation to the world and toward God.

The lack of unity is evident by the church’s effect upon the world. This could very well be the cause of degenerative attempts at getting people redeemed. We haven't fulfilled Christ’s invitation to glory and unity.

Let me try to illustrate the derivation of unity from God. Suppose in a large room you had 100 pianos that needed to be tuned. How can that be accomplished? We could try to tune one with a tuning fork. However, if we then tuned the other 99 to that piano we'd be far from the pitch of the tuning fork by the time we reached the last piano. If you want to tune 100 pianos, you tune them all with only one standard pitch produced from the same tuning fork. God provides the pitch that we must be tuned to.

To me, it's gratifying to know that you don’t derive unity from me or from each other. You get all your tuning toward unity from Jesus. If I'm living the Christ-life of holiness at maximum truth and glory, and you're doing the same, we have unity. You don’t want to be tuned to some other believer - you want to be tuned to God. Then unity inhabits the church.

Unity always tunes our lives to Christ likeness and Holiness when we absorb the Word of God in maximum fashion. When we keep the mission in its unity the world will then have a better chance believing. Unity's not to make us feel good, but to give the Light to an unredeemed world.

Let's hunger and thirst for Christ likeness that will produce unity. To be sure, it won’t be the anemic wishy-washy brand that grows out of the world’s need for liberalism and tolerance. Our culture will more and more resent and be hostile toward Christ, until we find God’s unity at work through Truth, Glory and Sanctification.